Late Bronze Age

The Late Bronze Age in the near east was characterised, politically, by the growth of centralised states, each competing for dominance in the region. Militarily the period was characterised by the 2 horse, 2 man light chariot and with infantry in support of and subservient to the chariot aristocracy or maryannu class of warrior.

At the end of the Late Bronze Age and into the Iron Age, chariots became heavier but with the infantry beginning to assert itself on the battlefield.

The first half of the Late Bronze Age saw the rise of the Hurrian Kingdom of Mitanni in northern Mesopotamia, which also controlled Assyria, and in the south, the kingdom of Kassite Babylonia. To the south-east was the Middle Elamite Kingdom and to the south-west was the rising power of New Kingdom Egypt. To the north-west, in central Anatolia, the state of Hatti (the Hittites) was being kept in check by Mitannian dominance in the region. In the west lay the Anatolian states such as Arzawa and yet further west the Achaean states of the Aegean, who had yet to influence near eastern affairs. It was only in Syria and Canaan where the near-eastern great powers vied for control of the region and where the small city states here made alliances with whichever kingdom appeared to be in the ascendency at that particular time.

In the second half of the Late Bronze Age, the Kingdom of Mitanni had been defeated and the lands taken over by the rising power of the Hittites in the west and by Middle Kingdom Assyria in the east.

At the end of the Late Bronze Age, the Sea Peoples from western Anatolia, the Aegean and beyond, swept through the western part of the near east and brought down the Hittite Empire. The confederation challenged New Kingdom Egypt before settling in central Anatolia and the Levant side by side with the Hebrews.

All of the conflicts of the Late Bronze Age in the near east and the Aegean, including the legendary Trojan war, can be recreated with this range of figures. Many figures from the Early and Middle Bronze Age can also be used and these will be indicated in the various lists where appropriate.

Early Hebrews (Habiru?) & numerous Desert or Dry Steppe Nomads of the Late Bronze Age such as the Shaasu or Shoosu; Sutu or Hanu Bedouin; and early Aramaeans (Akhlamu or Aamalu). The armies of the Arabian seaboard states of Makkan & Dilmun can also be built with this range.

Armies of all Aegean civilisations of the Late Bronze Age can be built with this range of figures. These include later Minoans, from Crete, Mycenaeans from the mainland of present-day Greece and other Aegean seaboard city-states such as those of the Trojans in western Anatolia.